Stanford...Yale? Yale...Stanford?? Anything Goes!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
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<p>was recently very fortunate to be admitted to Stanford SCEA, and then even more lucky to receive a likely letter from Yale, my two top choice schools!</p>

<p>I thought it would be easy to choose Stanford, my number one pick and my dream school for a long time, but now the choice has become unclear. So please, help me and future applicants, future students in my situation, and maybe even yourself in the process.</p>

<p>Stanford or Yale??? What's good, what's bad???</p>

<p>Anything goes. I want to hear anecdotes, rumors, feelings, guesses, statistics, quotes, pictures, ANYTHING that can help with the decision.</p>

<p>About me: Prospective Econ major (if a school lets me take as few math classes for this as possible that's a plus).</p>

<p>What I like about Stanford more than Yale: Sports, Weather, Laid-back, Cultural</p>

<p>What I like about Yale more than Stanford: Tradition, Administration-Student Cooperation, Housing System</p>

<p>Tie: Academics, Surrounding Location</p>

<p>I've read all of the other threads on this issue, but I want more meat. The good and the bad on both schools! Thanks for helping out!</p>

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<p>Harvard thread?</p>

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<p>If you got a Yale likely letter, I'm guessing that you're an athlete. Being an athlete at those two are entirely different prospects. Stanford's got the top overall D-I athletic program in the U.S. How big a factor is that?</p>

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<p>no, I got a likely from Yale. I am not an athlete.</p>

<p>I spoke with the admission rep today. She said they sent out less then 100 likelies.</p>

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<p>I would choose Yale in a heartbeat. My reasons:</p>

<ul>
<li>its prestige is only rivaled by that of harvard</li>
<li>known for more intellectual/creative types. stanford makes me think of bay area
asians gunning for top grades in engineering classes</li>
<li>george w. bush</li>
<li>Yale alumni were represented on the Democratic or Republican ticket in every U.S. Presidential election between 1972 and 2004</li>
<li>tradition! skull and bones society, anyone? </li>
<li>the east coast connection. no better place to work than NYC. </li>
<li>residential colleges</li>
</ul>

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<p>gadad, Tyler09 is not an athlete.</p>

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<p>Please ignore ChoklitRain's garbage. Stanford outstrips Yale in any meaningful category. How Yale alumni being on a Presidential ticket is even relevant is beyond me...</p>

<p>Silicon Valley is where it's at, unless you run away from technology like the plague.</p>

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<p>the best way you can figure out which school you like is to visit each one.. listening to other people with their own biases won't help you much (including me; i'm biased more toward Yale, but i recognize that Stanford is an amazing school too)</p>

<p>go visit and then decide</p>

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<p>I'd choose Yale, because I don't like Stanford's isolated campus and I prefer the residential college system. But of course they are both great schools and there are plenty of reasons to choose Stanford. My son, the computer scientist, for example, would have chosen Stanford any day over Yale.</p>

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<p>I'd say Yale, but only because I want Yale to have bragging rights to the most '08 TASPers, so I wouldn't put too much emphasis on my opinion. :)</p>

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<p>lol@ all the prestige-fanboyism going on in this thread</p>

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<p>Well, just go to Harvard then (since you are already on this site) so that you don't have to make that hard choice... :]</p>

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<p>eh, I applied, but Harvard has never really stood out to me. Most of the past students I've met, including my alumni interviewer, were lukewarm-apathetic about it. </p>

<p>They say they like it, but only in the same way people are like "yeah, I loved elementary school!"</p>

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<p>Um ok? I'd be pretty apathetic about my undergrad anywhere, because it's only the first of many steps.</p>

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<p>^ It's comments like that that make Tyler09 feel the way he does about Harvard. Like for real, were you being totally serious when you wrote that?</p>

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<p>I mean I know MIT, Stanford, Yale, and Princeton kids who all think in the same (read: sensible) way.</p>

<p>But if this was my terminal degree then I'd probably say things like "duuuude yale's for noobs, come to harvard"</p>

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<p>There really seems to be a recurrent them about undergrads not being happy at harvard. I have my interview today and I am going to ask her about it.</p>

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<p>Uh, happiness has nothing to do with it. Although yes some people come to Harvard only for the name...and are vocal about how miserable they are. I just wanna say "s tfu plz, man up" but then I'd get in trouble with the religious people as well as the feminists. -___-</p>

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<p>^loooooooool</p>